And there just is not bad lenses for m4/3 system. Like the much trashed 17mm f/2.8 performs better than many thrashers are capable to take photos. Although there are some things I find it less than optimal at. Not that it can't do some things, it's just not the optimal tool for every situation. The rear thumb grip has been enlarged to make the small body easier to handle, but most of the rest of the controls are straight from the old model. A notable improvement on the mark II version of the lens is that the front element does not rotate during focusing operations. Our sample didn't ship with a lens hood, and it's not clear whether one is available or not. First off, as this is a consumer-grade kit lens built out of plastic, it is unrealistic to expect professional-quality sharpness here (and as you probably know, kit lenses often get a bad rap for this). This lens, however, does perform remarkably well for a lens of its size and type — as long as you know how to use it.

Olympus 14-42mm lens review Just posted! Olympus 14-42mm lens review

The MkII lens has a smoother zoom adjustment. It glides whereas the MKI is slightly course and feels some resistance, due to the older design. Zuiko 14-42mm PerformanceThis does have a downside if you’re shopping for a simple interchangeable-lens camera to get started with – the E-M10 Mark III is beginner friendly up to a point, but this is a sophisticated and powerful camera, not a stripped-down snapper for smartphone upgraders. It's very hard to fault the quality of images that the 14-42mm EZ lens produces –and that's without even adding the 'kit lens caveat'. Certainly there are sharper lenses out there, but the images produced by the Olympus pancake are great whether wide open or stopped down, at all zoom ranges. The colours aren't short of 'pop'. If you find Vivid mode a bit too strong, you can swap to Natural mode or shoot raw and tweak your images to your liking Now and then we see people trashing cheaper lenses like 14-42mm or 9-18mm but most likely it is that they don't know what a cheap lenses can really do when doing nice big prints after good post process. And if really wanting "pop" (from any lens) then choosing correct photo paper is the key. Which brings me to mention that one advantage of the 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 II R is that you can use the Oly WCON-P01 wide converter. You can read a review here:

There are 2 different Olympus 14-42mm lenses - Mu-43 There are 2 different Olympus 14-42mm lenses - Mu-43

The focus ring is located at the end of the lens, a plastic ring that's just 3/16'' wide. The ring is a fly-by-wire design, controlling focus electronically, so there are no hard stops at either the infinity or close-focus ends. Given that focus is electronically controlled, you can assign the direction of focus to be either left or right. The front element doesn't turn during focusing operations. While the focal length and aperture range are the same as the MkI lens, the focusing mechanism has changed. The MKI lens has a traditional focusing method with a rotating and extending front section which lengthens the closer you focus, and the new version has a rear optical adjustment that's internal. Two clear benefits here are that the front doesn't rotate so if you're using a graduated or polarising filter it stays in the same desired position throughout the focus range. Olympus has enjoyed creating a lens that retracts into itself to become further compact, but has struggled to create something that's easy for the casual shooter to use. Previous designs require the user to turn the zoom ring to extend the body of the lens so it's ready to use, accompanied by a helpful text on the camera body. Olympus has taken it a step further, by turning this into an automatic power function: now the lens extends just by turning on the camera. This has the added benefit of giving the lens a power zoom function, which is useful in movie creation. Featuring an all plastic design, this is definitely a consumer grade lens, but can produce sharp, pro quality results if used correctly in the right situations.

If I compare your resolution charts for the two lenses I see very little difference but in practice one is fit for A4 prints and one for A3. Chromatic aberration is noticeable in any photograph taken with this lens, appearing in the corners and areas of high contrast as magenta-green fringing. It's most easily noticed in the wide angle (14mm). Although Olympus does not call this a macro lens, with a close focusing distance of 20cm and a maximum magnification of 0.23x, it actually puts up a pretty good close-up performance at the long end, as demonstrated by the example below.

Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED Zuiko Digital Review Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED Zuiko Digital Review

It's all in the pros/cons above. Mine was the MSC version. Its build wasn't confidence-inspiring and it broke after moderate use.

The kit lens for the new Olympus E-P1 micro four-thirds camera, the 14-42mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 M.Zuiko produces an effective field of view of 28-84mm when mounted on a compatible camera body. The micro four-thirds format will restrict compatible bodies to micro four-thirds mounts only; anything else would cause vignetting. Falloff of illumination towards the corners is fairly typical for a standard zoom lens, and shouldn't pose too many issues. At 14mm and f/3.5 the comers are 1.86 stops darker than the centre of the image and stopping down to f/5.6 results in visually uniform images. At 42mm, and f/5.6 falloff is about the same and the corners are 1.43 stops darker than the image centre and stopping down to f/8 results in visually uniform illumination. At the 42mm setting the lens is quite good, offering decent sharpness from corner to corner - it's made better by stopping down to ƒ/8 (at this focal length, your maximum aperture begins at ƒ/5.6), but again, it doesn't reach an especially sharp result. I think what happens often is that people immediately deem a lens to be inferior simply because it's viewed as a "kit" lens without actually using it.

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42 mm F3.5-5.6 EZ Lens, Standard

You're comparing what appears to be a daylight shot with a night shot. Not completely comparable, I think. The metering and shadows are completely different. When the lens is not being used, it can be collapsed down to almost half its length when in use, which is perfect for stowing the camera and lens away in a small bag or case. To collapse the lens, a switch located on the zoom ring needs to be pressed forward and the zoom turned past 14mm, which is fairly easy to perform. Regular camera settings are easy to get to as well. Pressing the small button next to the camera’s power switch displays a touch-sensitive info screen – you tap the setting you want to adjust and then turn the dials to change it. At 14mm sharpness peaks at maximum aperture, producing very good clarity across the frame. Stopping down doesn't yield any increase in quality, as is often the case with MFT lenses that have a slow maximum aperture.Smallest 3x zoom with 14-42mm focal length (especially 42mm end is important for landscape and portraiture)